


stars fashioned into flesh and bone

by love (villagepsychic)



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friends to Lovers, Multi, Pining, Polyamory, new tag for ashen wolves: Underground Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:40:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22284985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/villagepsychic/pseuds/love
Summary: This isnatural, is what Yuri tells her over tea that candlelit night. Because when you're stuck underground with only a few other people and your own internalized anger as company, it's only natural that you'd fall in love with your best fried. And—yeah, of course. That makes sense.But then—“By that logic, shouldn't I be in love with you?” Constance asks accusingly, and Yuri raises an eyebrow.“Well,” he says, a little contemplative as he takes another sip. “No one's stopping you.”(Constance is skilled in the art of magic. So is Hapi—and so is Yuri, in fact. But, of course, the Abyss is cruel enough to give her a problem she can't solve with a spell or any sort of anger, so she's stuck. Literally.)
Relationships: Constance/Hapi (Fire Emblem), Constance/Hapi/Yuri (Fire Emblem), Constance/Yuri (Fire Emblem), Hapi/Yuri (Fire Emblem)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 60





	stars fashioned into flesh and bone

**Author's Note:**

> this was birthed by several things:
> 
> 1\. hapi, constance and yuri are all incredibly attractive  
> 2\. i love a good friends to polyam relationship dynamic, which is admittedly super niche but who cares. my city now  
> 3\. I AM SO GAY FOR CONSTANCE.
> 
> i know very little about any of these characters so who knows! this fic might be completely ooc by the time we learn about their personalities! but i'm just here to spew my bullshit and my propaganda (yes, two different things) so i hope anyone who reads this enjoys!

It starts like this—

“You're way too good at this,” Hapi mutters, climbing off her horse and wiping at her face with the neckline of her shirt. Under the flame of the cieling light, her pink eyes glint and glimmer as she narrows her eyes at Constance, and she can't help her smug smile.

“Winning isn't hard, you know,” she says nonchalantly, not missing the way Hapi's nostrils flare. “Of course, when you're facing someone like _me_...”

Hapi's lips twist downward in that classic, predictable way of hers as she stares at Constance for a few more moments. It's an expression they've all (read: she, Yuri, and Balthus) been blessed with seeing consistently these days, although Constance never presses for a reason. Just when the staring starts treading the line between _intense but okay_ and _alright, this is awkward_ , Hapi sniffs and then smiles fondly down at her, and Constance raises an eyebrow.

“You're too cocky for someone who lost against Balthus only two days ago,” Hapi says, reaching out to flick her forehead, and Constance gasps.

“Rude! It's not like _you_ could ever win against him either!”

“Details, details,” Hapi says casually, waving her off. “Where is he, anyway? I'm hungry.”

“It's barely supper time,” Constance mutters under her breath, willing away the flush on her cheeks, blooming only after Hapi turns away to tend to her horse—although, of course, she isn't complaining about blushing _late_. It's the fact that she's even blushing at all that bothers her about as much as the way Hapi leans against her horse and opens her hand, letting remnants of Swarm magic buzz along her fingers. “You know, your death magic is so ugly.”

“Did I ask?” Hapi nearly snaps, and Constance would flinch if she weren't already aware of Hapi and her odd nuances—and then Hapi's face blooms into a soft smile, the kind she seems to reserve only for her. Or maybe Constance is just delusional. “I think we match, with my dark magic and your light magic. Well, you don't really have _light magic_ , but still.”

She says it so nonchalantly. This time, the heat doesn't wait to curl its way up her neck and onto her cheeks, and Constance resists the urge to fan her face. How _embarrassing._

Realistically, there is no definitive _start_ to anything. If Constance can't remember what day it is or how long she's been in the Abyss—probably her whole life, so perhaps that isn't a valid example, but still—then there's probably no way for her to remember when and how she fell in love with Hapi. Maybe it was two years ago, when Hapi impulsively chopped her hair into a pink pixie cut that made Constance's knees tremble for a reason she couldn't quite understand but blamed on the fact that Hapi has always been simply gorgeous. She remembers the wide-eyed look on Yuri's face, too, and so she assumed she had every right to blush and tremble and act like a fool in Hapi's vicinity if Yuri did it as well.

(Although she doesn't know why Yuri does it. But she also doesn't ask questions. She's preoccupied enough.)

The reality of it is that Constance has very little time to focus on fawning over the way Hapi goes on about her existential dread and ties her hair up into a messy ponytail whenever she deals with her horse or Constance's pegasus. Life in the Abyss is endless, but Constance studies more than she needs to and spends the rest of the time practicing or preparing meals with Balthus. Whatever time she has left is spent being some form of irritated and the surface-dwellers above them and some form of restless, often times heading down to their underground clearwater spring, where she'll normally find Yuri and Happy, one of their two cats. (Balthus named her. It did not go well with Hapi herself, who slapped him upside the head.) 

And so this is how life goes—repress, get mad, repeat. She would like to be left alone, although sometimes she wonders if even that is too monumental a request, even down here. But running away from love can only get you so far, and of course, Constance has to learn it the hard way.

“You seem distracted,” Yuri says by way of greeting as he sits across from her. He sets a tray of teacups and tea down in between them, a rug spread out underneath them as to curb any spills. They're sitting next to the stream again today, and the torches on the wall make the water look like liquid fire as it moves past them. “Got anything on your mind?”

“I'm not distracted,” Constance mutters after a moment of being distracted, and Yuri's smile is wry as he pours a cup for her and places it into her hands. “Okay, okay. But—still, it's nothing big.”

“It's hard to have any existential problems when you're stuck underground, is that it?” Yuri jokes, and Constance finds herself fighting down a smile, lifting her teacup to her lips and taking in the scent of pine as Yuri pours a cup for himself. “But in all seriousness—you seem a little more... _Constance-esque_ today.”

Constance wrinkles her nose. “That makes... absolutely no sense.”

“You know,” Yuri explains, “it's like—” and then he hunches his shoulders and narrows his eyes into a glare Constance has most definitely _never_ given anyone in her life, and then he scowls before sitting up again and giving her a neutral expression. “You know, like that. You seem a little more like that today.”

“I cannot believe you are our unnoficial leader,” Constance mutters under her breath, and Yuri laughs lightly. “I don't understand you.”

“Mm,” Yuri hums. “I suppose I'm a man of many mysteries.”

Constance rolls her eyes. “Or you're just an absolute buffoon.”

“An absolute buffoon with a sword,” Yuri says with raised eyebrows, “so maybe you shouldn't push me, hm?”

They both know Yuri would never lay a finger on her, even if it meant he had to concede a training battle—it's part of why Constance always goes to Hapi whenever she either wants to let out her anger through her magic or genuinely just wants to train. It's not like Yuri isn't formidable in battle, because he is; but Constance likes to think he has a secret soft spot for her, even on the days he chooses not to be nice. Towards her he's teasing, almost irritatingly so sometimes as she's the youngest, and to Hapi, he's a little more strict, but still kind. And he somehow manages to act like an exasperated parent to Balthus despite being seven years younger, which Constance considers a feat.

In all seriousness, he's someone she looks up to. He may be their unofficial leader, but they don't need any rituals or tests of strength to show them that Yuri really is the best-fit one to lead, even if all they do is stay in the catacombs anyway. He stares at her now, sipping from his cup and studying her carefully. His gaze is intense, so Constance looks away.

“Are you going to tell me what's troubling you?” He asks after a moment of silence, and Constance winces.

“You're going to keep pressing, aren't you?”

The slight upturn to his lips is the answer itself, and she sighs.

It's not like she hasn't thought about venting it all out to Yuri. Both he and Balthus are good at listening and doling out great advice in equal measure, but—this is different. This is not about the surface dwellers or her inability to sleep or losing a match against Hapi. This is about Hapi, yes, but not in a way that would be... predictable of Constance.

This is all so out of the blue, being in love with her best friend. She wants to laugh derisively just as much as she wants to throw her teacup into the water, and then she sighs when she realizes she can't do either with Yuri around, a hand coming up to play with her hair instinctively as she blurts, “How annoying is Hapi?”

 _Alright_ , Constance thinks to herself, trying not to scream at the mortified feeling that rises up in her chest when Yuri just blinks. _Way to go, Constance_.

“How annoying is... Hapi?” He questions, like he's trying to clarify what just came out of her mouth. When she nods, his face tips into a frown. “Hapi isn't annoying.”

“Really now,” Constance says. “Well, thanks for... letting me know, then.”

Yuri's frown only deepends before he leans in to settle a hand against her forehead, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Their faces are close, and Constance has to resist the sudden urge to either lean away or—she doesn't actually know. “Are you okay?” He asks. “You're not breaking a fever or anything, are you?”

“For goodness sake—” Constance slaps his hand away. “No, Yuri. I'm _fine_. Honestly, there's no need to fret.”

“There's always a need to fret when it comes to you,” Yuri says sagely, even as he leans away. Somehow, Constance finds herself missing the closeness, although she doesn't want to know why. “If this is about Hapi, though—I hope you two haven't fought, or anything. It's hard to find peace when two out of four people are arguing with each other.”

Goddess, how she wishes that were so, instead of this jumble of ugly, random feelings she can never quite name right. “That's a somewhat selfish reason for not wanting us to fight,” Constance says instead of that internal monologue. She's gotten too good at those.

Yuri laughs, but then he levels her with a serious look. “There's that, of course, but Hapi cares about you,” he says. “Everytime you two have fought, she comes to me after day three of your silent treatment and frets on and on about how she'll probably never have you again, and how you probably hate her—and then you two make up like it's nothing.”

Constance knew that. She nearly walked in on them once, a couple of months ago during a silent treatment session. She'd tried to enter Yuri's room to ask him to lend her a few strategy books before she had to stop just outside the door, listening to the voices inside. When she'd peeked through the sliver of the open doorway, she caught the sight of Hapi with her head on Yuri's chest and stepped back immediately, ignoring the churning in her gut to go find Balthus and just ask him instead.

Even now, thinking about it makes something in her chest want to boil over. It isn't jealousy, or hatred, or anything particularly negative, really—she doesn't quite know what it is.

Yuri's looking at her expectantly, and she snaps back into focus when he tips his head to the side. “Okay, there's definitely something wrong between you and Hapi.”

“There really isn't,” Constance tries to protest, but Yuri just narrows his eyes at her. “I apologize for being so out of it today. I just—don't know what's coming over me, but I'm alright. I promise.”

“Don't bullshit me,” Yuri says. “You're too obvious with your feelings, Coco.”

He rarely ever uses that nickname on her—that's normally Hapi's forte—, and something about the way he says it knowingly makes her want to shiver. And then a part of Constance thinks, why keep holding back? If the four of them have been in the Abyss for this long, they most likely aren't going to get out anytime soon. And if they aren't going to get out anytime soon, then—there's truly no point in lying about and avoiding her own feelings, because she can't avoid them forever. And she wants to be mad, but she can't.

“You have to promise not to tell anyone,” she says, mostly to lighten the mood, and it works, if Yuri's soft smile is any indication. “Not even Happy, you hear me?”

“Aren't cats always listening?” Yuri jokes, before he quiets down and lets Constance talk. And, if she's being honest, that's maybe her favorite thing about Yuri—his ability to listen. It's that, and the way he jokes around, and the way he takes care of them all—it's a lot of things, actually, but she doesn't want to focus on it.

He lets her in on a secret, later. This is _natural_ , is what Yuri tells her over tea that candlelit night. Because when you're stuck underground with only a few other people and your own internalized anger as company, it's only natural that you'd fall in love with your best fried. And—yeah, of course. That makes sense.

But then—“By that logic, shouldn't I be in love with you?” Constance asks accusingly, and Yuri raises an eyebrow.

“Well,” he says, a little contemplative as he takes another sip. “No one's stopping you.”

(And Constance has never been good at picking people apart or paying specific attention to them—Hapi has called her narcissistic more than once, both in jest and in a serious tone of voice that made Constance want to punch her—but if the way Yuri handles them both is any indication, she'd say he's having the same predicament as she is.)

Two truths and a lie:

  1. Constance has always been a stupid, hopeless romantic. In turn, she covers it up with a hatred for surface-dwellers (although none of it is fake) and a certain fierceness she likes to think comes with knowing several different kinds of magic and having a huge black pegasus as her companion, all to help sharpen her metaphorical blade of _cold-hearted and cruel_. 
  2. A Constance without a Hapi or a Yuri is like a shadow without the light, however far away it may be—completely unfathomable. It is a philosophical way of saying she cannot exist without them, but it's true. Balthus too, of course, but Hapi and Yuri, being her same-aged friends, have kept her afloat. She sometimes wonders if she'd be going insane without their companionship, although these days that's becoming more and more of a sad, constant truth than anything.
  3. Both Hapi and Yuri are completely oblivious to Constance's feelings—and sadly, this is the lie.



“You're staring again,” Hapi says with an amused little smirk, and Constance's heart tries to crawl out of her throat.

“Was not,” she mutters as she pointedly looks away.

Hapi snickers. “You're awful at lying, Coco. You know, next time you plan on staring at me instead of your book I think you should at _least_ pretend to be reading. So, you know, you don't get caught.”

“Shut up before I consider flinging fire at you,” Constance hisses, blushing profusely, and Hapi guffaws before falling silent. She's sharpening a knife and humming to herself quietly, and Constance finds herself staring again. This time, it's her that breaks the peaceful silence.

“Do you see the way Yuri looks at you sometimes?” she says quietly.

There's a pregnant pause as Hapi stops sharpening her knife, staring down at it before she says —“Yeah.”

Oh. That's not what she was expecting to hear. “Are you—do you—” _Do you like him?_ is what she wants to ask, but of course her voice chooses to fail her now. Perhaps she's afraid of the answer, but then Hapi looks up, her pink eyes boring into Constance's own.

“Are you asking me if I like him?” She asks.

Constance simply nods, not trusting her own voice, and Hapi frowns.

“I—uh, it's complicated. But yeah, I guess I kind of do. It doesn't really matter at the end, though, does it? Since we're all gonna die soon anyway.”

Constance completely tunes out the pessimistic comment in favor of dissecting that simple statement. _It's complicated. But yeah, I guess._ The confirmation, for some reason, stings less than she thought it would—a quiet voice asks whether or not she's actually in love with her friend, if she's taking it like this. “Alright,” she says slowly. “Thank you for telling me.”

“Yuri likes you too, you know.”

Now _this_ takes her by surprise, and her book slips out of her fingers and into her lap. “Um, sorry,” she says, voice a little shaky. “But _what?_ ”

Hapi's lips twitch up into a smile. “Yeah. We—might have... talked about this already. About you. And—and us, too.”

Constance blinks at her. Takes a breath. Holds it, and then—“You aren't fooling around with me, right?”

“What—” Hapi scowls. “Of course not! Why would we do that? There's no room for avoidance down here, you know. It's better to just try and hit the nail in the head instead of running around blind, hoping you're getting away from whatever you're running from.”

It's said so condescendingly that Constance almost doesn't want to take the unsolicited advice, but she's right—maybe this all is that easy. “Where's Yuri right now?”

“He's training with Balthus,” Hapi says, blinking owlishly at her with her droopy eyes, and the need to lean over and kiss her is so overwhelmingly strong and sudden that Constance has to physically intertwine her own fingers. Hapi says, “We can talk to him when he comes back. I'm sure he'd love to.”

“Yes,” Constance says. This all feels surreal, but there's still one more thing she needs to confirm—“You said you—talked about me. Does that mean you...?”

“Do I have feelings for you?” Hapi says bluntly, and Constance finds herself blushing. “Yeah, I do. I've had a crush on you for a while, even though you're kind of annoying, Coco.”

She says it so fondly Constance's chest aches. It's surprisingly easy to pull Hapi into a kiss after that, even if its brief and they jump apart when Yuri interrupts them, seemingly materializing out of nowhere at their mini library's doorway. It's surprisingly easy to look Yuri in the eyes and admit her feelings too, even with both of their intense stares on her faces, and Constance finds herself breathing a little easier when he presses his lips against hers for only a moment. The always-there, simmering anger is abated by her pride in knowing love can exist in the depths of the catacombs of a place she hates as much as she does, and then the thought gets swept away when Hapi pulls her into her arms.

**Author's Note:**

> this is unbetaed and is like, the shittiest thing i've ever written, but it needed to be written anyway. (or maybe it didn't. but still.)
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/_fraldarius)


End file.
